


Soldier

by DisplacedKey



Series: Diarmute Week 2020 [3]
Category: Pilgrimage (2017)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, ending scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23303257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisplacedKey/pseuds/DisplacedKey
Summary: Geraldus asks the Mute to save them. The Mute looks at Diarmuid.
Series: Diarmute Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673284
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Soldier

_“Save us!”_

David looks from Geraldus to Diarmuid; he is pale, soaked through, his pupils blown wide with terror. They make eye contact, and David sees fear and confusion where once there was happiness and innocence. He is so young. Too young to die yet.

Maybe it was always meant to be this way. Maybe de Merville was right: David never stopped being a soldier. He just found something new to fight for, and new ways of fighting for it. At the monastery, protecting Diarmuid meant keeping him happy. It meant carving him little animals from pieces of soft wood and collecting shells from the beach to show him. It meant being a willing ear to his many questions, a silent presence during their walks into the woods to gather herbs and kindling. At the monastery, protecting Diarmuid meant being there for him. But they are not at the monastery anymore.

David picks up the sword. He gives Diarmuid one last glance, trying to convey as much as he can in a few short seconds, and walks away. Diarmuid’s cry of grief punches through his chest like an arrow. David grips the sword with white knuckles, fighting every instinct that tells him to _go back. He needs you. Go back._

He has often thought that he would die for Diarmuid. What better cause to give his life for? Who better than the boy who looked at such an ugly, brutal, sinful being as David and thought, I will save him? Who better than Diarmuid, who reached into David’s chest and rekindled the pit of ash that his heart had become?

The sun is warm on David’s skin. The sound of the waves fills his ears as the Norman soldiers draw closer. How fitting that this life, which began on a beach, should end on one too.

**Author's Note:**

> This part of the movie always makes me cry, so I thought I'd make it even worse.   
> ====  
> This is my third entry for @pilgrimagesource's Diarmute Week. The prompt: Sacrifice.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at https://iwillcarryit.tumblr.com/


End file.
